Chapter 16: The King's Web
Winter settled over Kattegat like a predator crouching to strike, and with it came the fragments—bloody images that flickered through Paul's Daily Visions like glimpses of a nightmare he couldn't quite escape.
Horik meeting warriors in shadow. Silver changing hands in secret. Children's faces, terrified, looking up at something Paul couldn't see.
For seven straight mornings, Paul activated Daily Vision the moment he woke, burning mana for intelligence that painted an increasingly horrifying picture. Each vision showed another piece of Horik's conspiracy—warriors watching Ragnar's family, tracking their movements, learning their routines with the methodical patience of hunters studying prey.
[DAILY VISION - DAY 7]
[MANA COST: 4 MP - REMAINING: 20/24]
[IMAGE SEQUENCE: FIRE, CHILDREN'S SCREAMS, BLOOD ON STONE]
Paul jerked awake, his heart hammering against his ribs. The latest vision had been the clearest yet—and the most terrifying. This wasn't just political assassination. Horik was planning a massacre.
"Not just Ragnar. The whole family. Including the children."
Paul activated Success Rate Analysis, his hands shaking as he formulated the query.
[QUERY: PROBABILITY OF HORIK TARGETING RAGNAR'S FAMILY]
[RESULT: 89%]
[FACTORS: POLITICAL NECESSITY (ELIMINATE SUCCESSION), PERSONAL HATRED (RAGNAR'S HUMILIATION), FRANKISH GOLD (PAYMENT FOR COMPLETE ELIMINATION)]
[MANA COST: 3 MP - REMAINING: 17/24]
Eighty-nine percent. Nine chances in ten that Horik intended to murder children along with their father.
The knowledge sat in Paul's stomach like a stone. He'd been tracking a political betrayal, but this was genocide—the systematic elimination of Ragnar's entire bloodline to prevent future revenge. It was brutal even by Viking standards, the kind of thoroughness that spoke to either madness or foreign influence.
"Frankish gold. Someone's paying him to be this thorough."
Paul spent the day moving through Kattegat like a man walking through his own funeral, cataloging threats and calculating probabilities. Horik's warriors—Egil, Thorvald, and Rolf—had been spending more time around the settlement, their presence becoming so familiar that the guards had stopped noticing them. Perfect positioning for when the moment came.
That evening, Paul found Egil drinking at the tavern and bought him ale with silver that burned his fingers to spend.
"King Horik seems troubled lately," Paul observed, keeping his tone casual. "Does he confide in you?"
Egil's eyes sharpened with the particular focus that came from discussing dangerous topics while drunk. "He speaks of... changes coming. New order. Says Ragnar's time is ending."
Paul leaned closer, playing the role of potential conspirator. "Ragnar can be difficult. Perhaps Horik has wisdom we haven't considered."
"More than wisdom," Egil slurred. "He has... commitment. To do what's necessary. All of it."
"All of it. Including the children."
Paul activated Success Rate Analysis while maintaining his expression of interested sympathy.
[QUERY: PROBABILITY EGIL WILL REPORT THIS CONVERSATION TO HORIK]
[RESULT: 23%]
[FACTORS: ALCOHOL IMPAIRMENT (REDUCING CAUTION), PAUL'S APPARENT SYMPATHY (LOWERING SUSPICION), HORIK'S RECRUITMENT ORDERS (EGIL BELIEVES PAUL MIGHT BE TURNED)]
Twenty-three percent. Acceptable risk.
"When will these changes come?" Paul asked.
Egil's smile was all teeth and malice. "Soon. When the great warrior sails away again, thinking his enemies are across the sea instead of sharing his mead."
"The next raid. Horik will strike when Ragnar leaves for England again."
The conversation continued for another hour, Paul drawing out details with the careful skill of someone who'd learned to extract information without seeming to ask for it. By the time Egil stumbled away into the night, Paul had a timeline, a method, and a growing certainty that he was the only person in position to prevent what was coming.
But he couldn't warn Ragnar directly. Not without revealing the visions, and not without proof that would be dismissed as the paranoid ravings of a southerner who'd never understood Nordic politics. Instead, Paul began planting seeds—careful suggestions and indirect observations that would prepare the ground for action when the moment came.
"Horik's men seem unusually curious about your family's routines," Paul mentioned to Ragnar during a private moment between strategy sessions.
Ragnar's blue eyes sharpened. "Curious how?"
"Asking questions about schedules. Watching movement patterns. Could be innocent, but..."
"But you don't believe it is."
"I believe in being careful with things that matter."
It wasn't much, but it was enough to make Ragnar more observant. Paul had similar conversations with Lagertha, framing his concerns as instinct rather than supernatural knowledge.
"Watch Horik closely," he told her privately. "Something feels wrong."
Lagertha studied his face with the particular intensity she reserved for genuine threats. "Wrong how?"
"The way he looks at your children. Like he's measuring them for graves."
Lagertha's expression went stone-cold. "If he threatens my family, I'll feed him to the ravens myself."
"Just... be ready. When Ragnar leaves again, be ready."
[MENTAL STRAIN WARNING: EXCESSIVE VISION USE DETECTED]
[CLARITY DEGRADATION RISK: 12%]
[RECOMMENDATION: 48-HOUR REST PERIOD]
Paul dismissed the system warning with the casual arrogance of someone who'd grown accustomed to pushing limits. He had work to do, intelligence to gather, a massacre to prevent. Rest could wait until Ragnar's family was safe.
That night, Paul lay awake calculating timelines and probabilities. Horik would move within months, probably when Ragnar departed for the next English raid. The plan would be surgical—eliminate the family while Ragnar was away, claim they'd been killed by enemies seeking revenge, position himself as the natural successor to lead the avenging expedition.
"I've become exactly what the völva warned about. Someone trying to manipulate fate itself, consequences be damned."
But as Paul stared at the ceiling and listened to the winter wind howl through Kattegat's streets, he realized he didn't care about the consequences anymore. Not when the alternative was watching children die because he'd been too cautious to act.
[SYSTEM POINTS EARNED: 100]
[TOTAL SYSTEM POINTS: 875]
[ACHIEVEMENT UNLOCKED: SHADOW OPERATIVE]
[NEW ROLE AVAILABLE: INTELLIGENCE SPECIALIST]
The system notifications felt like mockery—rewards for becoming the kind of person who traded in secrets and manipulated others through careful lies. But Paul had learned to live with moral compromise. It was just another cost of keeping the people he cared about alive.
Tomorrow he would continue gathering intelligence, continue playing the dangerous game of appearing sympathetic to Horik's cause while working to undermine it. The thread between discovery and success was razor-thin, but it was the only path that led to preventing the massacre his visions had revealed.
"Let the völva be right about the price. I'll pay whatever the system demands, as long as Ragnar's children live to see spring."